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Field Reports: Guerrilla Office Tactics
Merlin Mann | Oct 1 2007
I've started collecting stories -- some of which may be entirely apocryphal tall tales -- of the purported lengths to which people are going to filter noise and to ensure that their time and attention aren't ceded to bad ideas, thoughtless people, or garden-variety time burglars. Here's a few of the more novel ones I've picked up. I'd also love to hear your favorites from amongst the cheats, tricks, and squirrely rules you've heard about: Before you flame meI’m not saying I necessarily promote or recommend any of these for you (or anyone, for that matter) — I just think they’re a fascinating snapshot of the lengths people need to go to today in order to get a semblance of order in their environment.
Yeah, sure, some of these are extreme, and some may get you fired or punched in the nose. But you have to admit, people are conducting some fascinating evolutionary experiments. Tempting stuff. The Question to YouHave you heard of any tricks that teams and individuals are trying to keep the madness at bay? Any that you can verify are being used in your own group — and are they succeeding or failing? For the mentioned tricks you find abhorrent, what solutions do you think might work better? 17 Comments
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Related: a "reverse meeting"Submitted by Merlin on October 1, 2007 - 10:08am.
I love the office hours idea! I've been wondering if teams could do something similar, with what I'd call a "reverse meeting." So, you and your crew have a publicized time a couple times each week where you get in a meeting room together for a couple hours (laptops and gadgets permitted), and any individual folks who need stuff from more than one of you can stop by and get helped. When you're not working with others, you're free to do your regular old work, but this seems like it could cut down hugely on the need for those kind of disproportionate meetings where one person talks a lot to one person at a time while everyone else stares at each other. It also encourages people to "gang" their requests and questions for team members into a list, and then get them all dealt with at one time. Anybody every try something like this? » POSTED IN:
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